How do you pronounce...

[Precioussss]

What is the correct pronounciation of "Tolkien"?

[Legolas]

toll keen

There's an interview clip of Christopher Lee pronouncing it correctly as he says "This is the very essence of Tolkien." or something along those lines. It's included in some of the trailers and on The Fellowship of the Ring DVD, I think.

[ January 10, 2003: Message edited by: Legalos ]

[gralin musicteeth]

Since this thread is called 'How do you pronounce', how do you pronounce 'Feanor'?

[the real findorfin]

I pronounce it Fay-en-awe, but thats just me.
I say Tolkien as Tolkin so there! smilies/smile.gif

[Luinsewiel]

I always pronounce Feanor as "Fee-nor". If it turns out to be wrong then I can throw it in my(rapidly growing)pile of mispronounced words to join Seleborn, Siridan, Tolkin and Morgorth. I think I read these names to fast or something smilies/rolleyes.gif

[Merri]

I always pronounced Tolkien as Tol-keen and Feanor as Feh-ah-nor.

[doug*platypus]

CLICK ME (http://forum.barrowdowns.com/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=forum&f=3).

[stinker_slinker]

"Faynor" is how i say it..

[Carorëiel]

I've always presumed that "Tolkien" is a German name, and thus "correctly" pronounced "Tol-keen"--following German pronunciation rules in which the second vowel in an "i-e" "e-i" combination is the one pronounced.

But in my experience, English speakers tend to fall back on English pronunciation "rules" when pronouncing German words. "When two vowels go walking, the first one does the talking." smilies/smile.gif Thus, Tol-kin.

Anybody know how the Tolkiens say it?

[Tigerlily Gamgee]

I used to always pronounce the "ea" connection as "ae" (phonetically)... but since they pronounce Smeagol "Smeegol" (or smigol phonetically) in the movie, my chi has been messed up.

[Arvedui III]

This may sound stupid, but I pronuce Tolkien Tol-keen sometimes and Tol-kin other times. Dunno why. Also, I say Fay-nor and Smee-goal.My brother and I debate the way to say Eomir and Eowyn. Can anyone help?

[ February 22, 2003: Message edited by: Arvedui III ]

[Eressië Ailin]

Does Feanor have the two dots over the 'e'? If so, then it is pronounced 'Fee-ah-nor.' Otherwise, it should be pronounced 'Fee-nor.' I always say 'Fee-ah-nor.'

Since both Eomer and Eowyn have a dash over the first 'e', it should be pronounced 'Ee-oh-mer' and 'Ee-oh-win.' The 'e' in Smeagol also has a dash over it so it should be pronounced 'Smee-goal.'

I'm 97.3% sure that this is right. Hope it helps!

[ February 22, 2003: Message edited by: Eressië Ailin ]

[elven maiden Earwen]

i dont know how to pronouce Eomir but i think you pronounce Eowyn A-o-when. At first i pronouced it E-o-when.

[the real findorfin]

E-O-mur

E-O-win

still Faye-en-or and Tol-kin

What about Thranduil??

I always forget what is spelt and say Tharandool, completely wrong but who cares, its my enjoyment.

[Arvedui III]

Wow, I'm complely wrong. I always said A-o-Mare,and A-o-win. I say Thran-do-ill. But everything I say is horribly mispronouced. Don't really care though. smilies/tongue.gif

[elven maiden Earwen]

You may not because in the movies Eomer and Eowyn were pronounced that way.

Me and my little sister have this debate on how to pronounce evenstar. I think its heavenstar(without the h) but she thinks its evenstar like a even number. How do you pronounce Evenstar is my question?

[Arwen_Evenstar]

Hi!
I say Tol-kee-en. I firmly believe that is correct. And i say Fay-nor.

[Arwen_Evenstar]

And I say thran-du-il

[Lady Alasse]

I usually say Fee-ah-nor but I'm not real good at figuring out how to pronounce things so don't pay attention to me.
I say Tol-kin and Tol-keen whichever I feel like at the moment.
My brother and I have almost always pronounced Smeagol Smee-oh-gull which is probably wrong.
I pronouced Eomer and Eowyn Ee-oh-mer and Ee-oh-win until recently. Now I say Ae-oh-mer and Ae-oh-en
I have no idea how to pronounce Thranduil but I usually say Thran-due-ill
I think that evenstar is pronouced Even-Star as in Evening star.
Does anyone now how to pronounce Earendil? Is it Ear-en-dill?

[elven maiden Earwen]

Air-in-dil i belive.

Eär is pronouced air like Eärwen would be prounoced Air-win.

[gralin musicteeth]

How about "Maedhros"??

I really have no clue how to say it so I just call him Albert.

[the real findorfin]

May-thr-O-s

with the thr sound hard (almost like a zzzy kind of sound, i cant explain, oh wait, say th but like a bee buzzing and ull get it)

[elven maiden Earwen]

I prounonce it May-head-ros, for some odd reason, which is problely wrong.

How do you pronounce Laurelin, Uinen, Niniel, Nienna, Nimphredil, Nirnaeth Arnoediad, Namare and Telperion?

[ February 22, 2003: Message edited by: elven maiden Earwen ]

[Dain]

There is a pronounciation table in the back of the Return of the King. Pronounciation and language was, of course, something Tolkien was really specific on (unlike a lot of things we discus here), and the experts are in the Languages forum, that Doug pointed out. I always say Tol-keen. Cheers!

[Arvedui III]

I say Even-Star

[the real findorfin]

Laurelin - low (as in allow) re (read) lynn (the name)

Uinen - Ooohh-nen or sumtimes ohh-nien (even though thats wrong)

Niniel - Nin-E-el

Niennor - Knee-en-oar

Nimphredil - Nymph-read (i have read) dil

Nirnaeth Arnoediad - Nur-neigh-ith Ar-know (or sometimes noy) -dee-ad

Namarie - Nam (Vietnam)-ar-E

Telperion - Tell-pear-E-on

[Nimrodel]

My personal favorite mis-pronunciation is "Gan-dolf" instead of "Gan-dalf".

[lindil]

I listened nearly all of the way through Martin Shaw's incredible readin of the first part of the Silmarillion [up to the chapter 'Of Men' and was delighted to hear his pronunciation of so many things I was iffy or wrong on.

Of course I am presuming his pronunciations are correct because he executes them with such skill and authority.

But I can not imagine that he did not take theime to either follow the pronunciation guideor ask CJRT or someone reffered by him.

Can't recommend those tapes [or discs] enough.

[Gorwingel]

Well this is one thing I have had a very hard time saying, how do you pronounce Mithrandir? Gandalf's elvish name, I never know how to say it.

[the real findorfin]

myth-ran-deer

[Cibbwin]

This is how I pronounce everything:

Tolkien = Tolken

Feanor = Fay ah nor

Smeagol = Smee ah gol

Eomer = Ay oh mer

Eowyn = Ay oh win

Thranduil = thran du ill

Evenstar = Evenstar

Earendil = Air en dil

Maedhros = No idea, I say Made ros

Namarie = Nam ar ee ay (doesn't the E have a dash as well?

Gandalf = Gandelf

[DaughterofVana]

Namarie - Nam (Vietnam)-ar-E



I'm sorry. I thought I wasn't going to post in this thread but I guess I must.

Namarie: Na-mar-e-ay.

WARNING: this thread is quickly becoming nonsense in a forum that isn't supposed to be nonsense. smilies/wink.gif In the back of ROTK (and the Sil) there is a pronunciation guide for each letter. Take that, and let an expert in phonetics/linguistics (Tolkien himself) guide you onto the straight path.

As for Tolkien; if a person who HAS the last name "Tolkien" (IE Christopher Tolkien) pronounces it "Toll-keen", then "Toll-keen" is the correct pronunciation.

-'Vana

[secretfire]

Shouldn't the 'd' in Galadriel be pronounced with a slight 'th' sound and not with a hard 'd'? Like /ga-LATH-ri-yel/ ? Just asking. Because Christopher Tolkien says it's /METH-ros/ for Maedhros...

[lore_master]

it doesnt realy matter how you pronounce them as long as it you like the wat you say it

[Orominuialwen]

Shouldn't the 'd' in Galadriel be pronounced with a slight 'th' sound and not with a hard 'd'? Like /ga-LATH-ri-yel/ ? Just asking. Because Christopher Tolkien says it's /METH-ros/ for Maedhros... No, it shouldn't be, because there is no 'h'. 'dh' should be pronounced, according to Appendix E, like the voiced (soft) th of English these clothes Also, Eärendil should be pronounced like Ay-AH-ren-deal, according to Ardalambion, which tends to be highly reliable. Cate Blanchet totally mutilates this in the movie.

Personally, I am very annoyed over the pronunciation of Sméagol in the movies as SMEE-gull. Éomer and Éowyn are pronounced like AY-oh-mer and AY-oh-win, which I agree with, so by the same logic, Sméagol should be pronounced like SMAY-uh-goll ("goll" rhyming with "doll"). Anyway, since I am not an expert on this by any means, please visit Ardalambion (http://www.ardalambion.com) and download their excellent Quenya lessons, which have a good pronounciation guide. Also Fellowship of the Word-smiths (http://www.elvish.org/gwaith/language.htm) is quite helpful for linguistic questions.

[Sharkû]

You're right, Ardalambion is very reliable, which is why I think it's you who made a mistake, not Helge:

_{"The position of the 'accent' or stress is not marked, since in the Eldarin languages concerned its place is determined by the form of the word. In words of two syllables it falls in practically all cases on the first syllable. In longer words it falls on the last syllable but one, where that contains a long vowel, a diphthong, or a vowel followed by two (or more) consonants."} (LR, Appendix E)

[Finwe]

If you look in the Etymologies in the Lost Road and other Tales, it gives you a bit of background on the names of many characters, which help you a lot in pronunciation.


Fëanor --> Fay-ah-nor

Smeagol --> Smay-a-gol

Earendil --> Ay (as in angel)-ah-ren-dil

I highly recommend Ardalambion as well, since Helge is one of the few authorities on Languages, Pronunciation, etc. that I trust implicitly.

Also, one thing that would help when you're looking up pronunciations, is, pretend that you're a baby and you're learning a language for the first time. Do NOT try to Anglicize the sounds that you see, try to get your tongue to get used to pronouncing letters in a different way. If you treat yourself like a baby learning a language for the first time, it will help you get over the impulse to Anglicize all the sounds.

[Everdawn]

Found this on the Encyclopedia of Arda;

Notes
1 The first syllable of Éomer's name is pronounced approximately like the English word 'ear'.
2 The éo- element of Éomer's name is surely 'horse', but -mer is less certain. It is most likely derived from Old English maer, meaning 'famous, glorious, heroic'.



Im not sure how correct their sources are, but it maks sense.

[Orominuialwen]

smilies/redface.gif Yes, that was my own mistake. My sincerest apologies. I have a very bad memory and couldn't find the part I was looking for in my Quenya lessons. And I'm glad I haven't been totally wrong on the pronunciation of Sméagol. It makes me feel a bit better about my many other mistakes.

<font size=1 color=339966>[ 1:46 PM January 22, 2004: Message edited by: Orominuialwen ]

[Armetiel]

Okay, this is from the Silm.

maybe it'll help

C is ALWAYS pronouced K, so Celeborn is KELEBORN not CELEBORN

CH is Always the CH as in the scotch "loch" or german "buch but NEVER as in the English "church" examples of names with it are Carcharoth and Erchamion

DH is always th as in "THEN" but NOT "THIN" examples in Maedhros, Aredhel, Haudh-en-Arwen (so Mae-TH-ros ex.)

G is ALWAYS as in "GET"thus Region would not be like our region, nor Eregion, and Ginglith is like to our "BeGIN" no "gin"

double consonants are LONG, thus Yavanna is the same N sound in UnNamed, or PenKnife, NOT unaimed, or Penny


VOWELS

AI sounds like eye, thus Edain is is like the english DINE not Dane

AU is like OW in town, so Aule is pronound like English OWL and the first syllable of SAURON is like the english word SOUR not SORE

EI as in Teiglin sounds like the english "grey"

IE, should NOT be like the english "piece" but with I and E seperate Ni-enna not Neena (hence I pronounce Tolkien TOL-KEE-EN, but perhaps that's wrong since he didn't write his own last name smilies/wink.gif )

UI such as in Uinen sounds like the english "ruin"

AE as in Aegnor, Nirnaeth, and OE as in Noegyth, Loeg, are both combinations of the individual vowels but May be pronounced ae as in "ai" and oe as in the english "toy"

EA and OE are Not run together but two seperate syllables. they are written as ëo, or ëa..unless the E is a capital and then the acent falls on the Second vowel as in Eönwë. the accent is used just to show that they are pronounced seperate, and the accent at the end of Eonwe shows that the final e is pronouced (as it ALWAYS is in elvish language (Most of Tolkien's names are Elvish)

ER, IR, UR before a consonant as in Nerdanel, Cirdan, Gurthan, or at the end of a word as in Ainur, should NOT be pronounced as in "Fern, fir, fur" but as "air, eer, oor" So NAIR-Anel, GOOR-than, Cirdan = KEER-Dan , Ainur= EYE-NOOR

E=is always pronounced in middle and end of words.

ú= oo so Húrin is HOOrin not Hyoorin

hope this helps smilies/smile.gif

[husborne]

Funny Mispronunciations :D (http://www.own-middle-earth-newzealand.com)


A friends daughter said to him the other day.

“ Dad, why are you always reading a book called To-clean?”

He just laughed and said “ Because mummy doesn’t do a good job of it” :D (http://www.own-middle-earth-newzealand.com)

Has anyone else heard some Funny Mispronunciations.

Like :-

Borimir: Beer-a-mare

Or
Aragorn: Argon
:D (http://www.own-middle-earth-newzealand.com)


husborne
own-middle-earth (http://www.own-middle-earth-newzealand.com)

[Boromir88]

Argon is a classic...

My personal favorite as always been Bromir. Don't as me why people pronounce it that way.

Or one time I saw an "Aowyn and Eowyn poll question." Which one you thought was hotter. Got a laugh out of that.

[Gil-Galad]

theres always Gandalph... and Leglas

[Oddwen]

When my Dad read LotR aloud to us, I'm not sure how much he knew about the languages. So thus, I learned these words as:

Seleborn
Izzengard
The Izzen
Izzledur
Andooin
Anduhril
etc. (I still stick with these pronounciations. ;) )

He also didn't bother with the elvish poems, and I vividly remember his rendition of the Black Speech:

"Arsh Glarsh Arsh Glarsh Arsh Glarsh!"

Ah, memories. :D

[The Barrow-Wight]

husborne has a talent for bringing up old topics worth reviving, so I have mereged his new topic with an existing one so both can be enjoyed.

[Mithalwen]

I always thought that Smeagol and Deagol were Smayagol and Dayagol .. but I have the Tolkien Audio collection and the man himself seems to say Smeegol and Deegol....!!!! I think the BBC radio version should be a fairly accurate guide since CRT advised on pronunciation providing a recording. His reading of the Silmarillion was very helpful.

[the guy who be short]

That would probably be the accent on the é in Sméagol misleading people... Seeing as the "correct" sound doesn't exist in modern English, it's not surprising people can't pronounce it!

[Mithalwen]

That would probably be the accent on the é in Sméagol misleading people... Seeing as the "correct" sound doesn't exist in modern English, it's not surprising people can't pronounce it!


But If anyone could do it surely Tolkien could if it was what he meant?

[wilwarin538]

I used to be terrible with pronouncing things.

I always pronounced Celeborn and Cirdan, Seleborn and Sirdan. That has been changed though, almost. ;)

The worst for me was Legolas, which I pronounced, League-lis(as in the lis from list). Which is absolutely horrible. :rolleyes:

[Mithalwen]

Eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeekkkkkkkkkkk

Though I cured myself of Seleborn (with the help of my devotion to the BBC radio series) ... that Cirdan was Kirdan never occurred.... never made the mental jump and have been mentally mispronouncing for years..... may need to lie in a darkened room for a while and have a stiff drink...

[Joy]

I guess my worst was Isen/Isengard when I first read the books.

I pronounced them as Ice-n/Ice-n-gard instead of Eye-zen.

I guess I just took a wild guess on Celeborn and Cirdan - I knew it was English and just thought of the Celts, remember that it is pronounced with a K.

When I got to the Sil, it was a bit harder, but reading though the appendicies helped with that.

[Mithalwen]

I guess my worst was Isen/Isengard when I first read the books.

I pronounced them as Ice-n/Ice-n-gard instead of Eye-zen.

I guess I just took a wild guess on Celeborn and Cirdan - I knew it was English and just thought of the Celts, remember that it is pronounced with a K.

When I got to the Sil, it was a bit harder, but reading though the appendicies helped with that.

Well if that was your worst.. you are doing very well... that seems a relatively fine distinction. I think my main errors on reading (until about 5 minutes ago!!) were Sore-on and Thrandwil...

[Joy]

Well, I guess being a language major in college helped some :)

[Mithalwen]

Well, I guess being a language major in college helped some :)

Well so was I but Tolkien was one of the reasons for that - I was very young when I first read LOTR - that is my excuse - University was about a decade away..... but then I still tend to think of misled as mizzled ......seems right some how but I say miss-led...

[Joy]

Well, I read LotR after graduating College. Sadly, I had never heard of it before the movies came out.

The worst word for me still is Angerthas. I know it isn't hard, but I just somehow mix up the letters to form a different word. I want to read it as anthergas. I don't know why my mind does this.

My languages are Spanish and Japanese. Where now though I have learned some German, French, Danish, Old English, plus I learned Latin, Greek, and Hebrew in High School.

[Oddwen]

This will probably grate your spine, but...

Yomer and
Yowin and
Yorl the Young

Éipes!

[the guy who be short]

I almost forgot! Ter-gon! :rolleyes:

[Turgon Philip Noldor]

I used to pernounse it Tergen. I still do sometimes. I have a dog named Tergen (actually Turgon, but we call him Tergen). :) I still have to work at calling it properly. One of the ones that is funiest for me is Simallarion (sp?). I always laugh when I hear a friend call it that! ;)

[dancing spawn of ungoliant]

My stumbling block was words that had an 'a' with two dots in it, Eä and Eärendil, for example. It took me ages to remember that the 'ä' is pronounced like an 'a' in Elvish (and Finnish) because 'ä' is a quite common wovel in Finnish and it's pronounced like an 'a' in the word "dad". I always pronounced Celeborn and Cirdan, Seleborn and Sirdan. Sounds very familiar... I was particularly irritated to learn the right pronounciation since I used to think that Seleborn souded nicer.

[Thinlómien]

And I used to pronounce Círdan as chirdan (ch like in the word 'chest'). That was rather strange...

[brim]

I always thought at the end of the 'Lord of the Rings' in the apendixes (I can't spell check because all I have is word pad on my computer) there was a section on how to pronounce some of tolkein's words. I do have a rather new copy of the books though. I may be wrong though... Even with the help I find myself often thinking sme-ah-gul among other pronouncing mistakes.